What was the causes and effects of the growth of networks of exchange after 1200?

The Silk Roads were a network of trade routes, rather than well defined roads, that not only allowed for transportation of goods, but also helped spread a lot of ideas cultures, and technologies. It facilitated interactions between the East and West, between Europe, Africa and Asia. Its legacy can still be seen in the connections countries have today.

The Silk Roads got their name because it started with silk, a very valuable good at the time. Simply said, it was the most famous commodity.

It was simply old routes of the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty that were revitalized by Arab merchants in the Abbasid Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries.

• The Tang Dynasty was a financial monster, they were really ready to take their goods to the market and make money out of it.
• The Mongol Empire also had impact since it unified and regulated the Silk Roads, making it safer and organized.
• The Crusaders also were clients for the Silk Roads, especially since Marco Polo created hype for Eastern merchandise in Europe.

The Crusaders didn't really go that far, their influence was mostly caused by the Merchants of Venice.

Both land routes and maritime routes are referred to when talking about the Silk Roads.

Diseases were spread through the Silk Roads. eg.: Black Death.

Ghengis Khan, founder of the Mongol empire, allowed for freedom of religion, allowing for diversity of cultures to grow on the Mongol empire. And was also very adapting and liberal.

Even though it was such a big empire, such adaptation and liberalism made them transform into something else, they were so open to other ways that they simply converted into a different thing, and stopped being the Mongols. Such as conversion to Islam. So in short, the Mongols themselves did not disappear or died, they were simply so open that they just changed what they were.

They brought the third golden age of the The Silk Roads, they brought better security.

They would kill the leadership, and put the peasantry under roles. Such as their military. What was very advantageous to them, is that they were smart enough to capture the strengths from the right people, they basically would spread people

For the military, they had a system where they would have military units of sizes such as 10, 100, and 1000. The way they would set it up is everytime they got new armies from conquered empires, they would separate them into different units so that they wouldn't know the other people they were with, and thus, were less likely to rebel, since you would be a minority. And also, everytime there was any attempt at rebellion, they would kill the entire unit, which incentivized the people on the units themselves to kill anyone who wanted to rebel so that way they would not be killed. This system also helped spread a diversity of skills throughout their military units.

There are myths about mass rapes, which would explain how Ghengis Khan would have spread his DNA, since so many people in the world have his genes.

What were the causes and effects of the growth of networks after 1200, and how did environmental knowledge support that expansion?

The largest sea-based exchange system, unlike the Silk Roads, it also traded a lot of non luxury goods because of the cheaper price of transport through sea rather than camels. Think of the Indian Ocean as more of an entity, very separate from western Africa.

Arab merchants have existed long before Islam, and thus, had traded along the Indian Ocean long before the spread of Islam.

You start to see human trafficking, the trade of slaves was very common in the area.

Knowledge on the Monsoon Winds allowed Trade to happen more efficiently.

A series of Trade routes that connected North Africa and the Mediterranean world with the interior of West Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

Just like most trade routes it had existed long before the 1200, but they expanded around this time.

The main reason it was able to expand on such a harsh terrain was because of technological innovations, such as the Arabian Camels. Along with that there was also new Saddles that allowed for more to be carried in a more comfortable way, along with Caravanserai.

Because the area was so diverse, each region specialized in creating and growing various goods, and that difference created a demand to trade with each other. Thus, opening an opportunity for the expansion of those trade networks.

One of the most important effects of trade was the spread of ideas and cultural traits, which is called cultural diffusion. And because all states were interconnected in some way, what one did, affected the rest.

The better structuring of the trading networks allowed for safer travels in general, with things such as the Mongol Empire defending trade routes.

The diffusion of agriculture and diseases.